About this episode

Prof. Jean-Michel Picard discusses the transmission of the cult of St Brigid to Continental Europe and shares insights on medieval Irish scholarship.

Happy St Brigit's day! This year's celebration of Ireland's most beloved female icon comes a bit earlier to the podcast, but keep tuned as we have prepared a surprise for you to be published this weekend! This week we are joined by the amazing linguist and historian Jean-Michel Picard, Professor Emeritus at University College Dublin, whose work has inspired generations of scholars studying medieval Ireland and Irish saints. In this episode, Prof. Picard tells us all about the transmission of the cult of St Brigit to the Continent, the various sources containing a wealth of information about the saint. Prof. Picard also shares the difficulties of tracking down manuscripts before the internet and offers us a glimpse of medieval Irish scholarship in Ireland in the 1980s. Suggested Readings: Connolly, Sean, and J.-M. Picard. 'Cogitosus’s ‘Life of St Brigit’ Content and Value', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland , 117 (1987), pp 5-27. Freely available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/25508920. Picard, J.M. Aquitaine and Ireland in the Middle Ages (Dublin, 1995). Picard, J.-M. 'In platea monasterii: the layout of ecclesiastical settlements in early medieval…

People in this episode

Guest: Prof. Jean-Michel Picard

Topics covered

• St Brigid
• medieval Ireland
• Irish saints
• manuscript studies
• linguistics
• scholarship

Keywords

• St Brigid
• medieval Ireland
• Irish saints
• manuscripts
• Jean-Michel Picard
• scholarship
• linguistics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University College Dublin

Books & works: Cogitosus’s ‘Life of St Brigit’, Aquitaine and Ireland in the Middle Ages, In platea monasterii: the layout of ecclesiastical settlements in early medieval Ireland (7th-9th C.), Omnes sancti chori Hiberniae sanctorum orate pro nobis

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